A Few Days On The Salmon River (videos included)

I recently returned from a 4 day trip to the Salmon River in NY. It is one of my favorite and most disliked rivers to fish. The river is beautiful, the fishing is great, but you can have some of the most ignorant people in the world fishing around you.

Example: I was fishing a great run when a guy walks behind me and sits on the bank. After about 10 minutes he finally decides that he is going to fish. He promptly stands up, walks in the river to my right, and stands exactly where my anchor point was for my double spey cast. If you fish the Salmon River, you must deal with this often, and I deal with it by continuing to fish like he is not there. A few casts later I hear "Buddy, watch where you are casting. Your fly almost hit me in the face." Politely, I replied "I have not moved all morning or changed the way I have been casting. You saw this and decided to stand there anyways.", and kept fishing. Joe, who was slightly upstream, eventually offered to have me move closer to him so I did not hook this guy. I obliged and moved about 10 steps upstream. Immediately following me was my downstream sidekick. Needless to say, this guy was asking for trouble, but we did not give it to him. Instead, we spoke about the average IQ level of the "fishermen" on the Salmon River, and how it must not be any higher than a 23. This guy did not catch onto our rants, most likely too drunk at 9 A.M.

We had a few similar incidents, but nothing too serious. So here is the report.

Thursday Afternoon – After setting up camp at Selkirk Shores State Park, my father, Mike, and myself started off in town (Pulaski) for some fresh salmon. Mike hooked up almost immediately on an indicator fished glo bug, but this king had no intentions of being landed. After a blistering run downstream, he eventually frayed Mike’s leader with his teeth and escaped.

As Mike re-rigged, I chose to fish my way up through the rapids, which were void of people. After indy fishing about 10 pockets, I finally hooked up with a male king who immediately bit through my 10lb tippet. Off came the 10lb material, and I replaced it with 13lb tippet material and the same sucker spawn pattern. Two casts later the indicator dove again and FISH ON! A semi-dark hen king salmon thrashed at the surface. She was not a great fighter by my standards, not even giving up one good run, but none the less a great way to start a trip.

Thursday afternoon and evening proved to be a good success. We hooked many kings, a few ho’s, and a couple steelhead and browns. Steady action for fishing legally and ethically.




Friday morning found us standing at an up river hot spot, fly rods in hand. Mike was rigged up with an indicator and egg patterns, my dad chose to dead drift egg patterns along the bottom, and I started by swinging an arctic fox hair pattern in black. My dad was the first to hook up….several times…. with chrome steelhead. Every time I would glance upstream towards him, there would be a steelhead headshaking on the surface. He did not bank any, but being new to the Salmon River fly fishing game, made it look easy for everyone else standing around.



I came back strong after switching to small wet flies and soft hackles. The steelhead and browns were annihilating size #8 - #10 Sparrows and Soft Hackles on a down and across swing. Nailing them in the middle of the water column. Unfortunately, a few salmon liked them too and I stood no chance with a 6wt and 10lb tippet. My supply of these "trout flies" was short lived.

Mike was off to a slow start, but with a few hints here and there, managed to tangle with some browns, steel, and kings throughout the morning. Also being fairly new to the fly fishing game, he "successfully failed" to bring any to the bank.

Eventually, Joe Goodspeed showed up and, well, Joe was not his usual self today. He actually disappointed me because I talk him up as being the best fly fisherman that I fish with, but he could not connect with any fish. Something was missing, and we believe it was his mojo. He couldn’t even accidentally foul hook a salmon! But, as always, he didn’t let me down and managed to land a BEAUTIFUL coho buck on a soft hackle. It was a gorgeous fish. See the video! Joe fought a few others following the coho, so his magic was slowly returning.



Around lunch time Joe headed for Oswego River and the rest of us headed to Burger King. Upon arriving, we managed to land a few whoppers right away. They gave us weak fights, but were released quickly into our stomachs. Sorry, a very bad attempt at humor. Over lunch, we decided to float the mid-river later that afternoon. A first for everyone.

We started at Pineville and headed downriver. There were fish everywhere we went! And they were moving up! Unfortunately, not many wanted to stop and play. Somehow, Mike would hook up everytime we would start to re-locate my Clacka. Not when we would be anchored for 20 minutes over a pod of fish, only when the anchor was lifted and we moved. It never failed, not once. He even hooked a few while text messaging on his cell phone. (Wish I had that kind of luck.)

The drift was a blast.

Mike landed one male king, we all hooked up numerous times, and had 3 fish take plugs but did not stay on. Needless to say, there was no shortage of fish in mid river. Every hole, run, pocket, and tailout had fish in.



Saturday morning was a repeat of Friday. Lots of browns, steelhead, and salmon hooked. A few banked, but not many. I even landed an Atlantic salmon about 30".

That afternoon we took the Clacka out again from Altmar to Pineville. What a mistake. We saw 0, ZERO!, fish moving between the big holes. And of course, the big holes were packed with guys because that is where the fish were. The Trestle Hole was a mess. Fortunately, the 150+ drunks did not pound us with their weights and we made it through unscathed. It was quite fun hearing their charades and comments as we slowly drifted through the snagfest. Ducking under 50lb test mono attached to screaming kings the whole way through!

We did find a spot below the Trestle that was void of any guys within 50 yards, so we parked the boat and began to fish. In the next 45 minutes, my father, Mike, and myself hooked about 15 salmon. All of them bit us off or made long runs downstream too quickly for us to chase. The run we fished was about 2-3ft deep, and ignored by the snaggers. A perfect little spot for us. Soon, the salmon became spooked because of the ruckus that was being created, and we moved on.

From the Trestle to Pineville we did not hook another fish. Depressing to say the least. All of the salmon were holed up and not moving.


Sunday was our last day and Mike wanted a few salmon to take home for an exchange of pot ;-) J/K

My dad wanted to fish upriver for steelhead and browns, so Mike and I went low while my dad fished up high. My father reported a fair number of hookups and a few fish landed upriver, including a 32" skamania.

Mike and I had it rough for the first two hours. We only hit 3 fish each, bringing one hen king to shore. At 9:30 we headed up river with the drift boat, and met up with my cousin for a float from Pineville to 2A. It was a good choice.

Right away we were all into fish, and we nailed one on a plug below the bridge at Pineville. To cut a long story short, every hole, run, pocket and flat had fish, and almost every spot had some players. Most fish that bit were too strong for us to land, and either frayed our leaders or made astonishingly long runs that we could not tame. Fishermen were few and far between as well! I believe the economy and gas prices have more people staying at home. Which is not a complaint from my end! Having miles of river to yourself is very enjoyable. It also helped keep the fish in a calm mood instead of being freaked out about the next time they will be snagged. A key to our success.

Overall, the trip was a big hit for everyone. We all fought plenty of fish on both our fly rods and spinning tackle. The snaggers were once again outfished by us. Maybe, just maybe, someday they will learn the right way and see how much easier it is to CATCH them.

There are plenty of fish in the river right now, from top to bottom, with a great mixture of kings, cohos, steelhead, browns, and an occasional atlantic. Not a bad mixture of fish for mid September.

The hot flies, if you are still reading, were #10-#12 glo bugs in natural colors, glo spawn in natural colors, black stoneflies, wooly buggers in white and black, and soft hackled wet flies such as Sparrows. No bait was fished at any time (even on the spinning gear). We’ll be back in 2 weeks, and I’m already filling up my boxes with more soft hackles and wet flies.


Fish Off!
Michael Foreman